If voters saw something extraordinary in Ms. Warren, then Mr. Brown
might be expected to prevail against a mediocre opponent, as he did in
2010 against the Democratic state attorney general, Martha Coakley. If
instead it was something intrinsic to the problem that any Republican
faces in Massachusetts, then even a lesser-known Democrat could win.

Ms. Warren’s favorability rating — 56 percent among Election Day voters —
was perfectly adequate but not extraordinary. And 37 percent of voters
said they thought Ms. Warren was too liberal, even in Massachusetts.

But such is the intrinsic advantage that Democrats hold in Massachusetts
that Ms. Warren won the election anyway. A “generic” Democrat who
avoided the mistakes that Ms. Coakley made (like insulting the former Boston Red Sox star pitcher Curt Schilling) would thus seem to stand a reasonably good chance.

And I agree with Nate: Martha Coakley was an unusually terrible candidate. But Brown still has a shot:

There are other circumstances, however, that could work in Mr. Brown’s
favor. Most important is the abbreviated schedule for a special
election.

In a special election campaign that lasts only a few months, the
Democratic candidate would not have the luxury of overcoming early
errors, as Ms. Warren did. That is especially true because the Democrat
would probably face a competitive primary, while Mr. Brown would
probably not.

The overall political environment is not likely to be as favorable to Democrats
in a special election as it was in November (although it also will
probably not be as unfavorable to them as in 2010). And there could be
an element of sympathy for Mr. Brown among some swing voters.

So what's the bottom line, Nate?

Despite all that, it is difficult to view Mr. Brown as much better than
even money: he is a Republican in Massachusetts who lost an election by a
reasonably clear margin just last month. And if Mr. Brown won, he could
well face another competitive election in November 2014, when Democrats
will have more of a chance to gear up — and when Deval Patrick will
have finished his second term as governor and might be more likely to
run for the Senate.

A lot depends on who Democrats decide to run against Brown, too. Ben Affleck has been mentioned as an unlikely choice, while better political money has Barney Frank in the seat (he's not saying no, should he be appointed by Gov. Patrick.) We'll see who runs, after all, Scott Brown hasn't announced much of anything, and running for Senate is expensive, folks.

Now, I can imagine the headlines, the shocking headlines you’ll print
tomorrow. “More guns,” you’ll claim, “are the NRA’s answer to
everything.” Your implication will be that guns are evil and have no
place in society, much less in our schools.

But since when did
“gun” automatically become a bad word? A gun in the hands of a Secret
Service agent protecting our president isn’t a bad word. A gun in the
hands of a soldier protecting the United States of America isn’t a bad
word. And when you hear your glass breaking at three a.m. and you call
9/11, you won’t be able to pray hard enough for a gun in the hands of a
good guy to get there fast enough to protect you.

So, why is the
idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the president of our
country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in
our schools? They’re our kids. They’re our responsibility. And it’s not
just our duty to protect them, it’s our right to protect them.

You know, five years ago after the Virginia Tech tragedy, when I
said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me
crazy. But what if -- what if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way
into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he’d been confronted by
qualified armed security? Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26
little kids, that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day? Is
it so important to you (inaudible) would rather continue to risk the
alternative? Is the press and the political class here in Washington
D.C. so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and American gun owners,
that you’re willing to accept the world, where real resistance to evil
monsters is alone, unarmed school principal left to surrender her life,
her life, to shield those children in her care.

No one. No one, regardless of personal, political prejudice has the right to impose that sacrifice.

And for a good 25 minutes or so (when he wasn't being protested by Code Pink in the middle of his gobsmackingly stupid tirade) LaPierre went on to blame video games, the media, the President, movies, television, liberals, parents, teachers, and everyone who wasn't a card-carrying member of the NRA for the deaths of 26 people last Friday.

On top of advocating for an armed militia of American volunteers to indoctrinate guard America's schools, LaPierre called for a national database registry of "the mentally ill", and demanded that students and teachers in schools be taught in firearm safety along with other educational courses.

Now, the National Rifle Association knows there are millions of
qualified and active retired police, active, Reserve, and retired
military, security professionals, certified firefighters, security
professionals, rescue personnel, an extraordinary corps of patriotic,
trained, qualified citizens to join with local school officials and
police in devising a protection plan for every single school.

We
could deploy them to protect our kids now. We can immediately make
America’s schools safer, relying on the brave men and women in America’s
police forces. The budgets -- and you all know this, everyone in the
country knows this -- of our local police departments are strained, and
the resources are severely limited, but their dedication and courage is
second to none. And, they can be deployed right now.

I call on
Congress today, to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary
to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation. And,
to do it now to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids
return to school in January.

In other words, the guy wants us to put an army of cops in schools in the next two weeks. All carrying guns, of course. I'm sure Xe or Triple Canopy would love to get that contract.

Your freedom, of course, means turning America into a series of armed camps with a bunch of people ready to do violence at a moment's notice. Don't you want that for your kids in your school?

In a stunning defeat, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) called off a vote
Thursday night on his Plan B to avert the fiscal cliff, citing a lack of
support from his own party. Boehner issued the following statement as
an emergency meeting of the House Republican Conference was ending:

The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not
have sufficient support from our members to pass. Now it is up to the
president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal
cliff. The House has already passed legislation to stop all of the
January 1 tax rate increases and replace the sequester with responsible
spending cuts that will begin to address our nation's crippling debt.
The Senate must now act.

Eric Cantor then adjourned the House for Christmas break. As BooMan points out, Boehner's days as Speaker are now most likely numbered as a result:

The president has no incentive to bargain with Boehner anymore. Why
make concessions to someone who can't deliver on his promises? The
administration has now been through this process twice with Boehner. If
they are going to cut a deal now, it is going to have to be on Nancy
Pelosi's terms and designed to win with only a sliver of Republican
votes. That would cost Boehner his speakership.

I agree. Boehner has shown that his own party will never sign off on a large bipartisan deal that will get 350 or 400 votes in the House. I could have told you that on November 7th.

So now, President Obama looks like a genius. He's broken John Boehner's back on this, and most likely Republicans will have a new Speaker in January. It also means that the Democrats will put a deal that heavily favors them on the table, and it will most likely squeak through the Senate and House sometime late next week, and the President will sign it on the 31st.

The Republicans will eat their crap sandwich, and then they will take John Boehner out back and ask him if he wants to leave the Speaker's chair by the door or the window...unless you think the GOP can keep more than a handful of defectors from taking the deal. That kind of leadership power is gone now, broken. Cantor, most likely, will replace him. But maybe Cantor will like being the majority leader too much and let the rabble appoint a winger nutjob as Speaker. That'll be the person who takes the fall in 2014.

But if somehow that doesn't happen and the Republicans decide they'll go over the cliff, they'll get an even worse deal and then they'll take it anyway. Another door or window choice, again only a handful of defectors needed. Again, no unity.

And if they somehow don't take that deal, then they'll get every ounce of scorn and blame from the American people, and the GOP will get the door or window choice from the voters. The choice will be taken from them by that point, it will be the window.

No matter what happens now, President Obama wins. Republicans have the opportunity to limit further damage here. They've not been intelligent enough to take it so far.

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About ZVTS

With Republicans controlling the House and Senate and the Trump Regime now in charge of the Executive, there's still a crumbling global economy imperiling the world, rising nationalism and deadly racism across Europe and Asia, a seemingly endless war against terror, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there when we need solutions. Dangerous levels of Stupid.

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